


Serenity

by Nocturna



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 10:46:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8797861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nocturna/pseuds/Nocturna
Summary: Doctor Daniel Jackson is an overrated do-gooder according to Rodney McKay. But sometimes that's just what a man in his position needs.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is really hard to tag, because it's neither real smut nor real romance, so I'll just leave it as it is -- just something that I felt the need to do, because most Daniel/Rodney stuff I found was pretty much Daniel using Rodney as compensation for Jack being in another galaxy, and even though I am 100% with the Jack Daniels ship, that bothers me, because I think there is so much more potential in this!  
> Anyways, please have fun, I will update this whenever I feel like it, the chapters probably won't get much longer.

The first time they met, he was admittedly less than thrilled. As though it wasn’t enough, that most of the staff revered the man for being part of legendary SG-1, they also called him a scientist. A _brilliant_ scientist even, and being as _he_ was a _real_ scientist, he definitely couldn’t have that. It was demeaning, having an anthropologist, an _archaeologist_ , being talked about as though he was Indiana Jones, Albert Einstein and Paul Newman all at once.

Luckily he was widely distracted when they did. In fact, he was ecstatic. The Ancient Outpost put his russian exile so far behind him, the time he spent in the claustrophobic hell that was Area 51 – all of it was just wiped away. Out here, he finally dealt with something that was worth his attention, and that feeling was dazzling enough to make him forget the terrible cold, even though sometimes when he _did_ try to sleep, he felt like he would never be warm again.

It didn’t matter, not for a second.

If someone would have asked, he would have said there was nothing under any sun, that could get him to leave that behind voluntarily. Until he heard Daniel Jackson, questionable king of soft sciences, say the magic word. Atlantis.

 

In hind sight, he thought about that moment a lot. About how even then, at their first brief meeting, Jackson had emanated more enthusiasm for their findings, than anyone he had ever met. Anyone other than himself maybe. What he had shown was excitement, restlessness, but not the tiniest shroud of pride in his ground breaking discovery, not the least bit of the ego he was used to, in his own field. Even though he had been far to busy to notice it back then, it had always been a theme with the man. He cared about knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and nothing else. Years later, Rodney still wasn’t sure if that was admirable or just plain stupid.

 

All of that changed, however, when Daniel Jackson came to Atlantis. Or maybe not right away. Truth be told, when Jackson showed up, he was even less thrilled. Time was short in their galaxy, and helping Indiana Jones with his treasure hunt definitely didn’t help with that.

Neither did getting abducted by the Asgards evil twins.

However, after the dust had settled and Jackson had moved into his new temporary office, his presence seemed less obnoxious and his theories less obsolete. Or maybe Rodney just got used to the fact that they wasted food rations on, again, _an archaeologist._

 

After all, he wasn’t all that bad. Of course he was still an annoyingly smart-aleck do-gooder, but now and then his refined language skill did help clearing up some irritating misconceptions. And sometimes he didn’t even need that.

 

The device they had recently discovered in their efforts to explore yet unknown parts of the city, was an about palm-sized flat oval, studded with a clear crystal globe, about two centimetres in height. Like many ancient contraptions, it came to life the second a research assistant who possessed the ATA-gene closed his hand around it, in an attempt to pass it along to Zelenka. Not that it was all that much more impressive once it was activated. All that happened, was the globe losing its clear hue, starting to glow in an unpleasant yellow. Passed over to an instantly alarmed Radek, it faded into a greyish blue tone, that seemed much less concerning.

Maybe that was, why it took them almost twenty more minutes to inform Rodney of their findings, and when he finally came by the lab they were cataloguing, Jackson was already there. He found him staring at the globe in his hand, which by that time had taken on a serene blue, much like the sky outside.

 

“Now what’s that then, mhh?” The brisk salutation didn’t seem to bother Daniel much, he just gave McKay a brief look, before returning his focus to the device again. “We don’t know. It could be a toy, for all we know.” That thought didn’t seem to diminish his fascination with it at all. “We have never found anything built by the ancients, that didn’t serve a practical purpose. It’s fascinating, really. Extremely unusually for a society as advanced as-“

“ _Fascinating_ is exactly what it’s not. We’re on a clock here, you know.”

“No one’s forcing you to be here, McKay”, Daniel said in the voice he reserved for particularly unimpressive but insistent bureaucrats that tried to intervene with his research, as a response to repetitive threats made by would-be fiends, and now also Atlanis’ favourite physicist.

 “Oh please!” Rodney had put on his usual biting sarcasm. “I can’t leave any of these people alone for more than a second. Activating an unknown ancient device? For all they knew, it could have blown up half the city.”

At this point Radek chimed in. He had been working on the other side of the room, squeezed in under a control board, but apparently he had been listening anyways. “When we found it, it wasn’t emitting any kind of energy.”

That made Rodney turn to him for a moment. “Devices seldomly emit anything _before they are activated_.”

Daniel intervened before the exchange could turn into one of their typical fights, even though he hadn’t seem to notice where the conversation was going, or that it had been going anywhere at all, after he lost interest. “Look at that.” Rodney looked, but he didn’t see anything other, than the globe turning into a deeper shade of blue. He was about to make a sly comment, when Jackson seemed to get an idea – which was generally never good. He handed the object over to him, before he had a chance for protest. It turned a shimmering ruby red almost immediately. The other doctor’s brow went up. “Thought so. I gotta check something in the database. Don’t have too much fun without me.” Staring after him, Rodney found himself wondering if the comment had  been supposed to be sarcasm, or the expression of genuine concern. However, he forget about that quickly when he heard a dull thump behind his back and turned around, to figure out who to shout at.

 

When Daniel Jackson came back, the room was a little less crowded, Radek was stuck under yet another piece of machinery, muttering something in czech that momentarily turned the anthropologists wide grin into a frown. “Really?”

An impatient sound by Rodney brought his attention back to the reason of his visit, and he pointed at the newly retrieved device. “ _That_ is _not_ a toy.”

“What is it then? An ancient snow globe?”

“No”, Daniel drawled, used to that kind of interjection by know – mostly thanks to the time spent with Jack. “It’s a lie detector.”  
That shut Rodney up for at least two seconds, which probably already counted as a success, and when he replied, all he seemed to be able to come up with was “Mh.” Another instant passed, before he found something to niggle on. “Then why did it change it’s colour when I touched it? Nobody even asked me anything.”  
With some sort of half shrug Jackson came closer, which made Rodney turn away from the console he was working on completely. “It doesn’t exactly tell you when someone is lying.”  
”So it’s not a lie detector. A lie detector is supposed to detect when-“ Daniel cut the rant off before it could gain momentum.

“Simply put, it determines if someone is particularly agitated.”  
”Like lie detectors on earth”, said Radek.

“Like mood rings”, said Rodney. Daniel, Radek and the two assistants left in the lab looked at him. He set out to explain. “Those trinkets that change their colour due to skin temperature? My sister used to have one, when we were children. I always wondered…” For a moment he seemed to trail off, but before anyone could interject something else came to his mind. “What do you mean, agitated? I had no reason to be agitated, I was fine.”  
The tone in which Daniel replied was extremely dry. “Right. McKay, you’ve been agitated ever since I first met you.”  
Rodney stopped to consider. “That’s… not untrue. Have you told Elizabeth yet?”

“I assumed you’d include it in your final report? I really need to get back to translating the data base.” And there it was again, Daniel Jackson completely dismissing the chance to take credit for his newest discovery. His behaviour was so unnatural, it made Rodney feel somewhat nauseated. Not that that was a reason to include Jackson in said report. After all, he had waived voluntarily. 


End file.
